Chili Peppers Increase Metabolic Rate

Written by Shoshana Pritzker Thursday, 29 September 2011 17:58

Chili Peppers Increase Metabolic Rate

Anyone who has ever eaten extra-spicy Mexican food knows that chili peppers turn up the heat. People are fat and getting fatter, so any food that burns more calories is big news. David Heber and colleagues from the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition found that supplementing capsaicin— the chemical that causes the heat in chili peppers— increased caloric expenditure for several hours. Capsaicin works by increasing levels of the “fight-or-flight” hormone epinephrine (adrenaline), which speeds fat use and increases metabolism. The results are interesting, but reflect the effects of a single dose. We do not know if the supplement works the same in lean and obese people or if people get used to it over time.

Several years ago, Dutch scientists found that supplementing capsaicin 30 minutes before a meal cut food intake by 8 percent. Taking capsaicin with tomato juice was even more effective, decreasing food intake by 28 percent. (Paper presented at the Experimental Biology 2010 meeting, April 27, 2010; International Journal of Obesity, 29: 682-688, 2005)